XC-Open Day 6

Yesterday we had the second task of the manilla xc open, but the weather again did not cooperate. The task was set to be an open distance task with one turn point 80k to the west. There was a strong headwind component as well as overdevelopment behind and then in front of launch. The pilots that launched early were able to climb out and push out front just in time to get a shower from a nice cloud that dropped out. Some of the pilots ran from the rain, some spiraled down in the shower and one pilot threw his reserve. I was on launch when this was taking place so I was forced to rush my glider into a ball and cary it under a tree. After this the conditions cleared up and I flew twice, landing no more than one kilometer away both times. This was extremely frustrating, but in the end the day was worth zero points as there were not enough pilots that made it far enough to have the task count as valid. I eventually went up for a third flight where I was finally granted with some good conditions that allowed me to climb a few thousand feet over launch an fly back to Godfrey's farm where I met up with my Swiss friends and my special French friend Nina. 

Today the conditions will hopefully be better than yesterday.  Overall this week has had the worst flying conditions that this area has seen in the last 2 months.  How do you break a drought in Australia?  You schedule a paragliding competition and have 100 pilots come in from all over the world.  I feel bad for many of the pilots that are only here for this week as the flying has been crap.  I on the other hand am not disheartened because I am in Australia at least for another 40 days and my time will come to send it huge.   

The first picture below was taken by my campmate and friend Fred from france.  It is of me two days ago racing under dark but gentle skies.  The second picture is of a wild monster that I encountered in my tent.  The third is of Nina and I waiting out a storm in my beloved home, my tent.